Atlanta University launches investigation after LGBT students receive transphobic notes
The hateful notes tell the LGBT students to "die" and use transphobic slurs
LGBT university students have been called “freaks” and not welcome in a series of homophobic notes.
Spelman College, in Atlanta, Georgia, announced in September 2017 that they would start to admit “students who consistently live and self-identify as women, regardless of their gender assignment at birth.”
The university, which doesn’t admit male students, has now launched a formal investigation after several LGBT students claimed to have received hateful notes.
According to Project Q Atlanta, Amber Warren, the president of Spelman’s LGBTQ student group Akrekete, revealed that she and her transgender partner had been receiving notes calling them “freaks” and stating they were not wanted on campus.
The first note was slipped under her dorm room door last month shortly before the university’s pride week and two weeks later, a second note was found under her partner’s door.
Spelman’s Afrekete shared pictures of the letters, which read: “Keep your tr*nny out of our bathrooms. Thanks!” and “We don’t want you… freaks! No queers!” alongside another message that read: “#DIE… We don’t want you here.”
In an interview with WGCL, Warren revealed that some members of the LGBT community had sent administrators a list of demands, including gender-neutral bathrooms in resident halls, sensitivity training for faculty and gender-inclusive housing.
If the demands aren’t met within a week, the students will protest.
The university’s president, Mary Schmidt Campbell, issued a letter to Spelman students on Tuesday (May 1) addressing the notes.
It read: “Here’s a message for the perpetrator: You are not Spelman College. Spelman abhors your behaviour. Spelman will continue to open its arms to embrace all of our Spelman students whatever their gender identity, sexual orientation or gender expression.
“Spelman is love, justice and respect. You, the perpetrator, are not Spelman.”